Soundcheck

From Irish Eyes to Short Attention Spans

Thursday, March 17, 2005

The book Green Suede Shoes is a rock 'n' roll story of Irish immigration, told by Larry Kirwan, the leader of the Irish American rock band, Black 47. It describes his journey from County Wexford, Ireland to the Bronx and follows him downtown to the clubs of the Lower East Side, where his best friends in his new homeland were the punk rockers the Ramones, the soon-to-be-starlit Cyndi Lauper and the future members of his legendary band. In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, he walks us through his musical memoir. Also: an oft-cited criticism of classical music is that symphonies, operas, etc. are just too long. But there are also plenty of examples of composers who can write really short pieces – many less than one minute in length - and still get their point across, from Chopin to Webern. Briefing us on this issue is Frank Oteri, composer and editor of NewMusicBox.org.

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